1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to motion estimation, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for estimating motion at high speeds by varying the size of a search window.
2. Description of the Related Art
Motion estimation has played an important role in video compression and transmission . A technique known in video processing for estimating motion has been recommended by the Moving Pictures Expert Group (“MPEG”) and H.261 standards, and is called a block matching algorithm (“BMA”). In the block matching algorithm, images are divided into blocks, and a best match block is selected for each block of a current frame by searching among all the blocks of a previous frame according to a matching criterion.
Motion estimation in compression of moving images requires a tremendous amount of computation. Therefore, what is desired is a method of effectively estimating motion that requires less power and fewer computations.